360 DEGREES Weblog

Despite its recent strategy of “sue everybody for everything,” Kodak has succumb to its financial pressures and filed for Chapter 11 business reorganization in New York. The iconic photography company isn’t dead yet, however, just very broke.

Kodak has already shuttered 13 manufacturing plants, 130 processing labs, and sheared 47,000 worked from its payroll since 2003 in an effort to offload its unprofitable divisions. Moving forward, Kodak hopes to leverage its existing “digital capture” patents and printing products to create “a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company,” said CEO Antonio Perez in a press release. The business restructuring should be completed by 2013.

Thanks Engadget

We suppose it was only a matter of time. As smartphones slowly take over the point-and-shoot market, camera makers are doing the only thing they can: making their cameras more like phones. The Polaroid SC1630 Smart Camera ($TBA) is a perfect example. Powered by Android, the SC1630 features a 3X optical zoom, a 16 megapixel sensor, a 3.2-inch touchscreen, micro SD storage up to 32GB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and — oh yeah — apps. Hello Flickr top camera, goodbye days of not being able to upload photos without the help of a separate device.

Get your bokeh on with the Fujifilm X-Pro1 ($TBA). This mirrorless interchangeable lens digital camera, styled in the same leather-like fashion as the X100 and X10, packs an all-new 16MP APS-C X-Trans CMOS sensor with a newly developed filter array and Fujifilm’s EXR Processor technology to deliver “superlative image quality that will rival currently available mid and high-end DSLR models.” A trio of prime lenses will be available when the camera ships next month, including an 18mm f/2.0, a 35mm f/1.4, and a 60mm F/2.4 macro. The retro-style shooter will feature a 2nd Generation Hybrid Multi Viewfinder, and all the standard dials and street cred you’ve come to expect from the

Looking for a cool way to display your photographs, then hurry up and grab some of the German-made Polaboy. The very cool Polaboy is designed by the company named Lightboys. It is basically an over-sized, blown up photograph, mounted on a wooden frame Polaroid style and illuminated with 5,000 lumens of LEDs. These LEDs allow light to shine through the said photo making it an object of valid light source. Display it as art during the day and use it as light during the night. For those interested in Polaboys, special editions prints are available on their website or you can send in your own print to the company and have it customized for you.

Each Polaboy frame retails for $2,200 and if you want it with your own photo it will cost you around $3000.

Nikon’s new flagship DSLR, the D4, has just gotten a pre-CES launch. The aging D3 has been losing its lunch to Canon for a while thanks to the rival company’s focus on video, so it’s hard to remember just how impressive the old D3 was when launched. The D4 is of course very video-centric, too, and the camera looks pretty amazing.

First, the video. The D4 shoots 1080p at 30, 24 and 60fps. There’s a stereo mic jack, 20-level audio meter and a 30-level output for monitoring via headphone jack. Not only can the camera capture and show you footage as you shoot, but it can also output uncompressed 720p via HDMI at the same time.

There is also full manual exposure control while shooting, and AF–should you want it. There’s also a neat trick that exploits the fact that a stills sensor has way more resolution than 1080p: the camera can optically zoom up to 2.7x during recording.

Stills-wise, less has changed. The sensor jumps from 12.1MP to 16.3MP, and will now shoot at up to ISO 204,800 (pretty incredible). The additional sensor used metering has gone from measly 1005 pixels to 91,000, and now allows face detection while using the optical finder. The D4 will shoot at 10 fps in stills mode.

Amongst myriad other tweaks, there are a few differences to the physical design, too. Gone is the AF lock button, replaced by a couple of joystick nubbins which allow selections in both portrait and landscape orientations. The rear LCD is slightly bigger at 3.2 inches (up from three), and controls can be illuminated for low-light work.

Finally, the camera now has memory card slots for compact flash and XQD, Sony’s new high-speed format.

In short, if you were impressed by the D3, you will be equally impressed by the D4. Non-video shooters may not need to worry about upgrading anytime soon, but then again, there’s plenty in here for stills photographers, too.

Thanks WIRED

8mm digital camera? Yup, we were confused too, but not after seeing some footage shot with the Fuuvi Bee Pocket Camcorder ($80). This retro-styled shooter records dreamy, old-school looking 640×480 video — complete with “noisy speech” — onto MicroSD/SDHC cards, and runs for up to 100 minutes on its rechargeable battery. Oh, and did we mention it’s ridiculously small?

Create your own art with Instagram CanvasPop Photos ($30-$60). Letting you mix the digital world with the real world, this CanvasPop offshoot lets you easily print your Instagram photos directly onto stretched canvas. Choose from 12″ x 12″ or 20″ x 20″, and be sure to order a small gaggle to make your own hipster-filter gallery.

Colette teams with The Impossible Project to present the next generation of instant film.

The limited colette edition pays tribute to the growing popularity of the analog in a digital world and presents the latest Impossible PX 680 Color Shade film in a unique colette designed packaging. Beyond, an original Polaroid SX 70 camera is made available, carefully re-skinned with a peculiar colette design cover.

This limited edition of 50 will be exclusively available at colette from December 5th, 2011.

If the Holga filter dial is at the cheap, tacky, plastic end of the iPhone lens case market, then the iPhone Lens Dial is at the very top end. It also costs ten times the price.

The chunky case is a carved from aircraft-grade aluminum, has two tripod mounts (for portrait and landscape shots) and features an unmissable disk with three lenses. Like the lens turret on old Super-8 movies cameras, this allows you to twist each lens into position.

On that dial you’ll find a 0.7x wide-angle, a 0.33x fisheye and a 1.5x telephoto lens. It’s a lot like the triple-lens pack but without all the sticky magnets and easy-to-lose lenses.

Despite all this metal and glass, the case weighs in at just 10 ounces (280 grams). Not light, but still lighter than your camera.

The price for this magnificently extravagant accessory is $250. That’s probably more than you paid for your iPhone.

In time for Christmas, Lomography presents their new range of Gold Special Edition Cameras. Three of their camera models, Diana F+, Diana Mini and Fisheye 2, have gone through a shiny make-over, dangling from a bling bling gold chain. These would certainly make for a nice accessory for Christmas and New Years Eve.